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Wednesday, 31 August 2011

I have had a couple of swallows "sleeping" in the kitchen for the past couple of weeks - sadly one of them has gone missing, maybe eaten by a cat, so now only one perching on the light cable. I guess they like human company. It's nice having a house so open to the nature. The cicadas have stopped their daily leg rubbing noise, so, Autumn is nearly here. The days are still warm, 30 degrees plus a bit, and the nights around 20 degrees. It is a nice time of the year. Tomorrow I will sand and paint the table that Felipe has been working on, as we are forecast some rain for Thursday night and Friday morning.

I do not know who David Foster is, however, his words ring true in this unprecedented time of necessary change.

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness,…" David Foster.

For myself, I feel that unconsciousness is the road down which "the victim", walks, feeling overpowered and dominated by events which surround him, thus leading to a physical and spiritual malaise that seems to pervade a sizeable section of our global society. Now is clearly the time to remain awake and conscious of global events which will change our lives, and to look for ways in which we can fit into a new emerging transformed Matrix of life.

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

We had a great lightning show last night with two close "strikes", and a little bit of rain. There was a small earthquake about 50Km away which caused some damage, but it was in an unpopulated area, so got little media coverage.

You can see from the pictures that I had a successful irrigation of Tim's Agave nursery. !

I trimmed the Acacia at the end of the house which has opened up the view down the valley, also I set the waste pipe in Yesso, a brilliant substance which will even set under water. It is great for the irrigation line too.

Filipe removed the fallen Agave Pita from the terrace below the house. You can see the terrace to the right of the house in the picture.

Ivi did a great job cleaning the windows. Allan has been digging the Apricot tree terrace. Peter and Kuba have been working in the Filabres, and Mira has been making music.

Ondra and Eva were off again to Retamar Beach for selling more trousers. They had a very "thin" night last night owing to the thunder storms. ! They work until about 2 in the morning and get back to the village at around 3.00 am.

Sunday, 28 August 2011

It has been a day of many visitors. First of all friends from Sunseed, then friends from Tabernas, then friends from Northern Spain,, along with friends from Mojacar and Hellin near Madrid, so, all in all a very social day.

It was also good to hear that the monster hurricane Irene did less damage than expected on the American Atlantic Seabord.

I really like Mira's art, so I am sharing a couple of his spiritual pictures with you, along with another rather less spiritual picture, but a good one too. !

Saturday, 27 August 2011

It's been a relatively quiet day with most of "the team" on the beach checking out Ondra and Eva and their trouser selling mission. In the morning I caught up with some "desk work", E mails etc, then in the afternoon Mira and I moved the sceptic tank to it's new position. I also had a success with unblocking the waste water pipes, so things are moving on with the water system. I spent some time extending the irrigation for the old apricot tree, whoes roots are now getting a good soaking.Mañana Mas. !

Friday, 26 August 2011

It's been a good day today. A little less heat and humidity, and I have been dealing with water. We had a Ram pump breakdown which Chabba has fixed, and I have been pumping water up to my tanks and over to Tim's swimming pool. Now all tanks are full and so is the swimming pool. Muy Bien. !

I have started chain sawing wood for the winter, which you can see on the photo, also, I am well on the way to unblocking a drain from the small house , again, see pic. !

Peter, Ivi, Kuba, and Allan have all gone down to Tabernas for the night and then they will go over to Retamar beach to see how Ondra and Eva are getting on with selling their Tai Trousers, tomorrow.

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."

This a quote from Malcolm X. It makes sense, after all, if we do not know what is going on in our world, how can we plan for the future? Today, the art form is to get at the truth about what is going on in our world, and to be heard when we do not like it.

Thursday, 25 August 2011

It has been rather a hot tiring day today, however, we have got a few things done. At Sunseed, Mimi made an exhibition of her artwork in the "Arboretum" - a great setting with food, wine, music and beer and grape juice too. !

Wednesday, 24 August 2011

Todaywas the day the San Pedro flowered. They only last for a day and also have an amazingly sweet scent.For the rest a day - clearing rubble, cutting wood, disposing of old batteries, shopping, seeing friends.......in short, another full day. !!

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

I got up early again today and was down with the "Sunseeders" for 8.00 am to meet with them and go back up "the line" to fill a big hole in the side, with Yesso, and rocks, and old clothes, and to remove some "heavy duty" roots.You can see our root removal in the picture. It was a successful mission and the flow down to the village is now excellent. We opened the dam a little bit to make a bit of a flow for the "love pools".Ondra and Eva have gone down to Retamar beach to sell their stock of Thai Trousers . Felipe has been taking rubbish out from the valley, Kuba has been painting and Juan and Jorge have left for Girona.

Monday, 22 August 2011

This morning I and we had a great success on the irrigation line nad considerably increased the water flow spent with the Sunseed "crew" and we considerably increased the flow of water. Kuba painted the stove and has started painting the room under the library. Ondra and Filipe moved the concrete blocks down to the site of the new sceptic tank. This afternoon Ondra and Eva and Lucy and Emmi have gone rock climbing, I went for a run with Charlie and the dogs and came home and ate ice cream, chatted and then set up the water supply for the huerta and watered the garden. A busy day and a good day.

Sunday, 21 August 2011

One of the downsides of living in a culture that stresses the ethic of independence and individual achievement is that if we don’t continually reach our ideal goals, we feel that we only have ourselves to blame. And if we’re at fault, that means we don’t deserve compassion, right? The truth is, everyone is worthy of compassion. The very fact that we are conscious human beings experiencing life on the planet means that we are intrinsically valuable and deserving of care. According to the Dalai Lama, ‘Human beings by nature want happiness and do not want suffering. With that feeling everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering, and everyone has the basic right to do this…. Basically, from the viewpoint of real human value we are all the same.’

Saturday, 20 August 2011

We have been "off line" for a couple of days because the "modem" burnt out. I got a new one in Mojacar today, free of charge, GOOD. ! We also went to Alfaix and I chose some good wood for the Winter - see pictures. All's well. We have a ceremony tonight.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Last night I went down to Tim's "jam session" at the Pita Escuela. There must have been about 50 people and the music was goodwith a good Sax player, a good trumpet player, and Mo, Tim's brother on piano. Drums and guitars were also "in evidence" and we had quite a mixture of music including Mira on the violin with some Schuar tunes from Ecuador. I hope to collect some pictures off a photographer who took a lot of pictures. I think we will see him again next week.

Kuba has been spending many hours on the re-decoration of the "Salon" and you can see from the picture that it is coming along really well.

Alan, Raul and myself have been clearing weed, in the form of tree roots, from the Irrigation Line. The flow is still slow, so more work is necessary. !

The weather is still pretty hot, we are forecast a mid 30's day today. The Summer is coming towards an end and we REALLY DO need rain. !!

Sunday, 14 August 2011

We had a great ceremony last night looking at the part that fear plays in our lives. Always a good topic. !I like the picture!.The other photos are of the replacement of a crushed pipe in the Irrigation line. That was a very satisfactory job as none of us had been "miners" before. !

Saturday, 13 August 2011

Saturday, 13 August 2011

We have been busy for the last couple of days - playing chess - harvesting "cherry" tomatoes, continuing the restoration of the stove, kind of all "on the go".Today Robert arrived from Madrid with a car full of great gifts - like an early Christmas. Raul also arrived from the Alicante area. He has been working for a while in France.Tonight Mira will be holding a ceremony - more tomorrow.